1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of playing games and methods of amusement.
2. State of the Art
The card game known as Blackjack or Twenty-One is a common card game played for recreation and in casinos throughout the world. In Twenty-One the outcome is determined by either the player or the dealer having the highest hand value that does not total more than twenty one as defined by the hand value. The hand value is defined by the total of the cards, and their value is the numerical value of the cards, except that the face cards are all defined to have a value of ten, and the ace may have a value of either one or eleven--whichever makes the best hand. The best hand is the blackjack, the two card hand totaling twenty one, a hand comprising an ace and a ten.
The game is typically played with insurance and doubling down the only side bets normally allowed. Herein, a `side bet` is defined as a bet that requires an additional wager, and is based on an occurrence that may or may not affect the ultimate outcome of the game. The two traditional side bets mentioned illustrate the concept. When the dealer shows an ace a player may place a second bet to `insure` that the dealer doesn't have a ten as his down card. If the dealer has some other card than a ten, the player loses the wager for the insurance, play continues for that hand, and the player may still win the hand. The player may double down by placing a second bet after the first two cards have been dealt that the next card dealt to him will give him a better hand than the dealer--that is, his three card hand will beat the eventual dealer's hand.
The need for casinos to attract more customers, particularly the casual player who may not fully understand the table games, has caused a recent upsurge in interest in developing new easy to understand and play side-bets for established table games. The need has resulted in several innovations in table games found in casinos. Some have filled the need admirably, but the average life time for a variant side bet game is short enough that there remains a continuing need for candidate games.
Several different types of card games and variants on card games have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,485, issued to Woodland et al. discloses a variant on the twenty one card game wherein the player insures against a `stiff` hand, one having a value from 12 to 16. It pays on odds of 3:2.
Parker proposed another type of variant in U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,946, wherein the player is allowed a second bet to increase the total of the wager during play.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,067 issued to Paulson et al. a system of electronically connecting several twenty-one games is shown. This helps generate large pots and create enthusiasm for the plurality of games being played at the various tables.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,494,296 and 5,390,934 both issued to Grasso the talbe is modified so the players can bet on whether the other players will beat the dealer or not. Again this side bet generates enthusiasm for the game.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,992, Josephs combines aspects of poker and blackjack games in a game featuring a series of side bets of a twenty-one game based on the values of poker hands. This game is shown in both a table version and an electronic version.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,237,789 and 5,257,789, LaVesseur teaches a method and table layout for betting a single Twenty-One hand dealt to a player against successive dealer hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,570 describes the game of Twenty-One modified to include side bets on whether the dealer will bust or get a hand of exactly twenty one.
And in U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,107 Boylan et al. teach a game called `Over/Under 13 Blackjack`.